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Reprinted  from  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,  Philadelphia,  November,  1915. 

Publication  No.  951. 


COUNTY  BUDGETS  AND  THEIR  CONSTRUCTION 

By  Otho  Grandford  Cartwright, 

Director  of  Westchester  County  Research  Bureau. 

As  one’s  thoughts  concentrate  upon  the  subject  of  budgets  and 
budget  procedure  for  counties,  the  question  projects  itself  insistently 
into  the  foreground : What  bearing  upon  democracy  has  the  prepara- 
tion of  a budget  for  the  management  of  county  government? 
Coerced  to  find  an  answer  to  this  query  before  proceeding  with 
discussion  of  the  budget  itself,  I can  do  no  better  than  to  state  here 
certain  extracts  from  a report  of  Dr.  Carroll  Dunham,  of  Irvington, 
Vice-President  of  the  Westchester  County  Research  Bureau,  in 
behalf  of  a committee  appointed  by  the  Bureau’s  board  of  directors 
to  prepare  a model  county  charter. 

Dr.  Dunham  states  the  basic  principles  of  democratic  govern- 
ment briefly  as  follows: 

1.  Sovereignty  resides  in  the  people. 

2.  In  a republic,  government  should  be  by  those  whom  the  people  choose. 

3.  Government  must  be  for  the  people. 

4.  Government  administers  a certain  part  only  of  the  people’s  affairs 
(public  affairs,  and  not  private). 

5.  Its  scope  changes  gradually,  as  time  progresses. 

6.  Government  must  be  efficient  and  responsible. 

a.  To  be  efficient,  the  administrators  must  have  authority. 

b.  To  be  responsible,  they  must  be  answerable  for  their  authority  to 
the  sovereign  people. 

7.  To  build  a government  logically  and  soundly  upon  these  fundamentals, 
elect  few  officers.  Do  not  handicap  them  by  multitudes  of  other  officers,  depart- 
ments and  bureaus,  with  checking  and  balancing  powers;  but  give  those  few 
officers  power  to  appoint  and  remove  subordinates. 

8.  Secure  responsibility  by  publicity.  Complete  publicity,  as  to  the  details 
of  public  business  and  the  acts  of  public  officers,  destroys  opportunity  for  graft. 

9.  Enforce  the  keeping  of  full,  simple,  accurate  records,  open  at  all  times 
to  all  people. 

10.  Let  the  officers  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the  government  prepare  in 
advance  a complete  budget,  with  full  financial  programs  and  full  statement  of 
financial  condition. 

11.  Have  fixed  dates  for  the  publication  of  the  complete  budget,  and  fixed 
dates  for  full  public  hearings  thereon,  open  to  all  people. 

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12.  In  enacting  the  budget,  provide  that  it  shall  be  lived  up  to  strictly  during 
the  period  which  it  is  to  cover. 

13.  A sovereign  must  always  be  able  to  learn  how  his  work  is  being  done. 
When  the  people  is  the  sovereign,  as  in  American  government,  the  people  must 
have  such  full  knowledge. 

Dr.  Dunham’s  fundamentals  constitute  the  elixir  of  life  of 
municipalities.  The  budget  is  the  thing  that  keeps  the  blood 
coursing  fresh  and  vigorous  through  the  veins  of  government. 
When  the  elixir  is  low,  the  administration  is  impoverished  and 
weak.  When  it  is  lavish,  gluttony  and  coarseness  result, — the 
administration  becomes  selfish  and  heedless. 

Nothing  is  fool-proof.  A budget,  however  scientific  and  com- 
plete, does  not  guarantee  good  government.  Neither  does  keeping 
the  weeds  out  of  a garden  guarantee  good  crops.  But  as  it  is 
certain  that  there  will  be  very  slim  crops  where  weeds  overrun,  so 
it  is  likewise  certain  that  the  absence  of  proper  financial  provision 
will  greatly  reduce,  if  not  completely  nullify,  the  efficiency  of  an 
administration. 

A government  without  a financial  plan  is  as  badly  off  as  an 
army  without  munitions.  Consequently  it  is  not  waste  of  space 
for  The  Annals  to  give  to  this  subject  the  prominence  of  an  entire 
volume,  nor  to  emphasize  therein  the  importance  of  the  county 
budget  in  the  grand  tactics  of  financing  public  service. 

Like  the  old  parson  in  the  Wonderful  One  Hoss  Shay,  I am 
given  to  firstlys,  secondlys,  etc.  In  discussing  this  subject,  I shall 
try  first  to  picture  to  the  readers  of  The  Annals  the  ordinary  way 
of  financing  a county  government;  then  to  state  some  improvements 
of  method  accomplished  in  recent  years;  and  thereafter  to  portray 
what  a proper  budget  should  be,  and  how  it  should  be  arrived  at 
and  its  operation  assured. 

The  Ordinary  Way 

From  such  incursions  as,  in  the  course  of  my  experience,  I have 
been  able  to  make  into  the  minds  of  men  who  are  either  concerned 
in  any  way  in  budget-making,  or  have  from  other  causes  given  any 
thought  to  the  matter,  I have  concluded  that  to  the  majority  of 
men  the  term  “budget”  does  not  convey  any  definite  meaning. 
A hazy  concept,  as  of  something  pertaining  to  a bag  of  documents 
that  contain  a lot  of  bills  to  be  paid,  and  a lot  of  other  items  that 


County  Budgets  and  their  Construction 


3 


will  call  later  for  the  expenditure  of  a lot  of  money,  if  the  governing 
body  or  council  votes  to  authorize  them,  is  what  the  word  “budget” 
suggests  to  most  people. 

One  afternoon  I addressed  a ladies’  club  of  a nearby  city  on 
the  need  of  a local  budget  exhibit.  After  I had  ended,  and  was 
taking  tea  with  the  ladies,  the  president  of  the  society  remarked, 
with  a puzzled  look: 

“You  have  explained  perfectly  the  great  advantages  of  a budget 
exhibit.  Now  I wish  that  before  you  go  you  would  tell  us  just  what 
a budget  is,  and  then  we  will  understand  the  whole  subject.” 

Excluding  students  of  finance  and  of  public  service,  I think  the 
usual  understanding  of  a budget  is  almost  as  indefinite  as  that  indi- 
cated on  the  part  of  the  worthy  lady  president  referred  to. 

But  the  term  “budget,”  as  used  in  this  volume  and  in  this 
discussion,  is  meant  to  include  the  entire  financial  plan  made  by  a 
government  for  the  work  of  its  fiscal  year.  The  detailed  discussion 
of  a full  scientific  budget  will  be  taken  up  later. 

In  most  municipalities,  the  elected  or  appointed  rulers  have 
not  thought  much  further  than  the  statute  law  requires  them  to 
think.  Their  financing,  therefore,  consists  of  providing  for  those 
things  that  the  law  says  must  be  provided  for.  In  county  govern- 
ments this  is  more  than  generally  true,  though  some  states  are  more 
advanced  than  others  as  to  their  statutory  requirements.  An 
example  like  Indiana,  where  the  law  permits  the  employment  of  a 
wide-awake  accountant  who  keeps  pushing  into  county  financing 
successive  advanced  ideas  and  improvements,  shows  up  immensely 
by  contrast. 

The  usual  procedure  in  making  the  county  budget  is  resistance 
to  “procedure”  of  any  sort.  It  is  rather  inertia  than  procedure. 
It  consists  of  yielding  to  the  enforcement  of  the  law  that  taxes 
levied  on  the  county  by  the  state,  money  borrowed  by  the  county 
to  meet  emergencies  and  carry  current  expenses,  and  legal  claims 
accumulated  against  the  county,  must  be  paid.  If  it  were  not  for 
the  law  compelling  these  things,  and  for  the  urgent  reminder  of 
people  who  want  the  money  which  the  county  owes  them,  I am 
not  sure  that  there  would  ever  be  a county  budget  in  most  states. 
The  county  goes  much  on  the  principle  of  the  lazy  man  who  gets 
trusted  for  everything  he  needs  as  long  as  possible,  and  only  bestirs 


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himself  to  obtain  money  to  pay  accumulated  obligations  when  he 
is  urgently  pressed  by  creditors. 

When  all  items  that  have  to  be  paid  are  gathered  together,  it 
is  usual  to  put  off  as  much  as  possible  by  borrowing  on  county 
bonds  all  that  it  is  legal  to  borrow,  and  by  refunding,  where  possible, 
bonds  that  have  matured.  Then  the  irreducible  minimum  is  placed 
into  the  tax  levy.  There  is  nothing  less  scientific,  less  economical,  and 
more  inefficient  or  more  extravagant  than  such  a method  of  procedure. 

In  the  county  budget  the  board  of  supervisors,  or  county  com- 
mission, or  tax  levying  authority,  must  provide  for  two  classes  of 
expenditures,  and  may  provide  for  a third  class.  The  first  class 
includes  those  disbursements  over  which  the  tax  levying  authority 
has  no  discretion.  Such  are  taxes  levied  by  the  state  upon  the 
county,  judgments  pronounced  against  the  county  by  a court  of 
competent  jurisdiction,  salaries  of  county  officers  established  by 
legislative  enactment,  and  similar  items.  The  second  class  includes 
expenditures  which  have  to  be  provided  for,  but  over  which  the 
tax  levying  authority  has  discretion  as  to  the  amount.  The  third 
class  includes  expenditures  over  which  the  tax  levying  body  has 
complete  control,  both  as  to  their  existence  and  their  amount. 
Such  expenditures  would  include  items  of  public  service  not  spe- 
cifically required  by  law,  but  which  the  county  governing  body 
might  deem  wise  and  necessary  for  the  benefit  of  the  county  at 
large.  The  possibility  of  expenditures  of  this  type,  however,  is 
commonly  cramped  by  the  narrowness  of  the  powers  conferred  by 
law  upon  the  county  authorities. 

Things  ordinarily  not  provided  for  are  industrial  and  social 
needs,  which  properly  call  for  public  management  and  public  regula- 
tion, but  which  have  hitherto  been  left  to  individual  control,  and 
the  consequent  management  of  which  has  been  good  or  bad  accord- 
ing as  individual  greed  and  selfishness  or  individual  benevolence  has 
predominated. 

Some  of  these  matters  are  regulated  in  some  counties,  but  none 
of  them  in  all  counties,  and  all  of  them  in  no  county.  In  determin- 
ing what  elements  of  such  nature  shall  be  turned  over  to  public 
management  or  regulation,  it  is  necessary  to  decide  where  the  border 
line  lies  in  Dr.  Dunham’s  fourth  fundamental,  that  government 
administers  only  the  public  part  of  people’s  affairs,  and  not  the 
private. 


County  Budgets  and  their  Construction 


5 


Improvements  in  Recent  Years 

Some  improvements  have  been  made  in  recent  years  in  a few 
states  where  they  have  adopted  something  in  the  line  of  budgetary 
provision.  New  York  state  has  a law  (General  Municipal  Law, 
§§30-38)  empowering  the  state  comptroller  to  prescribe  a uniform 
scheme  of  appropriations  for  all  counties  of  the  state,  but  gives  him 
no  means  to  enforce  its  adoption  or  use.  It  rests  largely  with 
individual  counties,  therefore,  whether  the  comptroller’s  budget 
plan  will  be  used  at  all  or  not.  Some  chief  essentials  of  a budget 
are  lacking  in  the  comptroller’s  plan.  It  does  not  prescribe  a bal- 
, ance  sheet;  nor  a working  plan;  nor  current  periodical  reports;  nor 
a statement  of  estimated  funds  available  for  budget  purposes  in 
the  reduction  of  taxation;  nor  budget  hearings;  nor  any  safeguards 
upon  the  appropriations. 

Indiana  has  an  accounting  law  which  prescribes  budget  esti- 
mates by  each  department  head,  to  be  presented  on  forms  furnished 
by  the  county  auditor.  These  forms  are  sufficiently  detailed  to 
provide  for  a fairly  complete  list  of  appropriations  for  the  conduct 
of  various  county  departments,  but  many  of  the  elements  of  a 
budget  which  are  lacking  in  New  York  state  law  are  also  lacking 
here. 

Los  Angeles  County,  California,  with  its  new  charter,  has  also 
made  a great  advance  in  budgetary  provision  within  the  last  three 
years. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  best  types  of  county  budget  procedure  at 
present  in  operation  is  shown  in  Westchester  County,  where  the 
heads  of  departments  are  required  to  submit  in  advance  requisitions 
for  all  the  needs  which  they  are  required  to  serve  during  the  fiscal 
year,  the  requisitions  are  passed  upon  by  the  finance  committee, 
and  the  budget  is  then  prepared  and  submitted  to  the  board  of 
supervisors  in  the  following  order: 

In  the  first  column,  the  amount  of  the  requisition  by  the  department  head; 

In  the  second  column,  the  total  amount  required  by  each  department; 

In  the  third  column,  the  amount  allowed  by  the  board  to  he  expended  by 
each  department ; 

In  the  fourth  column,  the  unencumbered  balance  of  the  fund  remaining  from 
the  previous  year,  and  applicable  to  such  department. 

In  the  fifth  column,  the  amount  of  unpaid  obligations  of  the  previous  year 
for  the  payment  of  which  money  is  still  on  hand  in  the  treasury;  and 

In  the  sixth  column,  the  total  amount  of  money  to  be  provided  in  addition 
to  the  funds  on  hand. 


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These  summaries  are  followed  by  estimates  of  municipal  earn- 
ings,— that  is,  amounts  to  be  received  as  current  revenue  from  the 
earnings  of  the  various  departments;  revenues  due  as  refunds  for 
advances  made  by  the  county,  and  revenues  from  other  sources; 
and  by  a statement  of  the  details  of  the  requisitions  for  each  county 
department,  and  each  function  and  line  of  operation  thereof. 

The  Westchester  County  budget  lacks  the  following  elements: 
(1)  a balance  sheet,  or  statement  of  the  financial  condition  of  the 
county;  (2)  a working  plan;  (3)  provision  for  reports  as  to  the  con- 
dition of  funds,  and  the  comparison  of  operating  cost  periodically 
with  budgetary  provision;  (4)  provision  for  full  publicity;  and  (5) 
certain  safeguard  provisions  in  the  enacting  statute  or  resolution 
of  the  board  of  supervisors.  Moreover  there  is  no  investigation 
as  to  social  or  industrial  needs  of  the  county,  and  there  is  no  pro- 
vision for  public  hearings,  the  most  democratic  of  all  features  of  a 
budget  procedure. 

Ontario  County,  New  York,  has  improved  its  budget  and 
accounting  and  audit  system  by  taking  advantage  of  as  much  of 
the  existing  law  as  it  found  possible  permitting  such  improvement. 

Monroe  County,  New  York,  operating  under  the  direction  of 
a newly  established  bureau  of  municipal  research,  has  adopted 
something  approaching  a more  scientific  budget,  but  still  some  of 
the  above  elements  are  lacking  there. 

Cities,  particularly  those  that  have  acted  under  the  guidance 
of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  have  advanced 
much  farther,  and  have  established  very  complete  budget  provi- 
sion, attended  by  all  the  necessary  provisions  and  safeguards  to 
make  it  workable,  and  to  prevent  it  from  falling  down  in  operation; 
but  cities  have  centralized  responsibilities,  where  counties  have 
nothing  of  the  sort. 

The  County  Budget  as  It  Should  Be 

In  order  to  arrive  at  the  direct  and  scientific  way  of  approach- 
ing the  preparation  of  a budget  for  a county,  it  is  necessary  to  make 
sure  that  we  understand  the  full  significance  of  all  that  is  compre- 
hended under  the  term  “ annual  budget,”  and  we  shall  readily  see 
that  it  is  by  no  means  a simple  matter,  to  be  put  off  until  the  latter 
part  of  a fiscal  year,  and  then  hastily  constructed.  It  needs  ad- 


County  Budgets  and  their  Construction 


7 


vanced  study  and  provision,  including  extended  and  thorough  exam- 
ination into  all  the  needed  service  to  be  financed. 

The  budget  is  a definite  plan  or  proposal  for  financing  present 
and  future  needs  of  the  government.  As  there  is  a national  budget 
for  the  national  government,  and  a state  budget  for  the  state  gov- 
ernment, etc.,  so  there  must  be  a county  budget  for  the  county 
government,  and  it  must  be  built  much  upon  the  same  general  plan 
as  prescribed  elsewhere  in  this  volume  for  nation,  state,  or  city. 

In  making  the  budget,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  find  out  what 
needs  must  be  served,  and  we  learn,  as  pointed  out  above,  that 
there  are  three  general  groups,  resulting  entirely  from  the  character 
of  the  laws,  which  confront  the  governing  body  of  the  county.  The 
first  is  that  of  statutory  levies.  The  state  law  provides  that  a county 
must  pay  its  pro  rata  share  of  the  state’s  expenses.  The  county  is 
simply  informed  by  the  state  authorities  as  to  what  such  an  amount 
is  to  be,  and  must  include  it  in  its  tax  levy.  The  county  usually 
has  maturing  bonds  to  be  paid.  Such  bonds  must  be  placed  in  the 
tax  levy,  together  with  interest  due  on  them.  Occasionally  there 
are  judgments  rendered  by  a court  of  competent  jurisdiction  against 
the  county.  Such  judgments  must  be  paid,  and  placed  in  the  tax 
levy.  Over  matters  like  the  foregoing,  the  county  governing  body 
has  no  choice.  It  simply  must  pay  them. 

The  second  group  comprises  statutory  levies,  over  which  the 
governing  body  has  no  discretion  as  to  whether  such  needs  shall  be 
served,  but  does  exercise  control  over  the  amount  to  be  provided. 
Instances  of  such  are  the  maintenance  and  operation  of  the  various 
county  departments  established  by  law,  and  the  salaries  of  various 
county  officers  and  employees  not  fixed  by  statute.  Salaries  fixed 
by  statute  cannot  be  controlled  by  the  county  governing  body, 
but  such  are  few. 

As  yet,  we  have  considered  only  statutory  needs.  There  is  an- 
other group  of  needs,  which  we  have  already  indicated,  that  are 
never  provided  for  in  county  government,  and  I would  go  further, 
I believe,  than  any  of  my  fellow-advocates  of  a proper  budget  pro- 
cedure, and  besides  having  department  heads,  required  to  submit 
advance  estimates  of  what  they  need  to  support  their  departments, 
I would  advocate  urgently  the  enactment  of  a state  law  to  the  effect 
that  some  means  be  provided  for  asking  the  public,  in  all  the  com- 
munities of  the  county,  for  statements  of  all  things  that  they  con- 


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ceive  to  be  public  needs,  which  should  be  served  by  county  govern- 
ment. 

This  information  might  be  obtained  by  public  advertising.  In 
such  case,  civic  societies  would  urge  various  needs:  one,  that  the 
county  enforce  industrial  safeguards;  another,  that  the  county 
enforce  sanitary  housing  regulations;  another,  that  it  control  the 
sanitation  of  schoolhouses  and  medical  inspection  of  children; 
another,  that  the  county  regulate  local  health  ordinances  and  uni- 
formity of  health  administration;  another,  that  the  county  con- 
trol municipal  accounting,  so  that  it  shall  be  uniform  in  all  the  towns, 
cities,  and  villages  of  the  county;  another,  that  the  county  admin- 
ister uniform  collection  of  taxes;  another,  that  it  regulate  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  by  substituting  courts  of  inferior  jurisdic- 
tion, with  trained  lawyers  as  judges,  instead  of  the  local  justices  of 
the  peace,  who  are  apt  to  become  mere  fee-chasers,  and  are  frequently 
ignorant  of  the  law. 

Individual  citizens  would  recommend  other  public  services 
that  should  be  performed  by  the  county.  These  needs  would  then 
be  considered  by  the  governing  body,  and  weighed  thoroughly,  and 
such  as  were  deemed  to  be  of  sufficient  importance  would  be  incor- 
porated into  the  budget  provisions,  as  far  as  the  county  governing 
body  might  have  power  conferred  upon  it  by  law  to  make  such 
incorporations.  For  others,  held  to  be  of  sufficient  importance,  it 
would  then  ask  further  powers  from  the  legislature.  We  should 
then  have  a budget  serving  community  needs  in  a way  I have  never 
yet  known  them  to  be  provided  for. 

It  would  be  a misfortune,  however,  to  have  to  rely  entirely 
upon  the  county  governing  body  for  the  judgment  of  the  merit  of 
the  various  needs.  Consequently,  each  one  who  suggests  any  item 
of  public  service,  not  hitherto  provided  for  and  recognized  as  such, 
should  be  invited  by  the  appropriate  government  authority  to 
appear  before  it  and  extend  his  recommendations  with  all  the  sup- 
porting arguments  that  he  might  be  able  to  prepare.  Otherwise, 
his  recommendations  might  be  undervalued,  and  misjudged,  and 
undeservedly  set  aside. 

After  all  is  weighed,  assorted,  classified,  and  fully  prepared,  of 
course  the  final  proposals  for  public  service  are  to  be  passed  upon 
by  the  governing  body  which  has  power  to  enact. 

Who  should  prepare  the  budget  is  a question  of  the  gravest 


County  Budgets  and  their  Construction 


9 


importance.  In  state  and  national  government  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  chief  executive  is  the  proper  person  to  perform  this  service, 
upon  consultation  with  and  the  advice  of  his  cabinet  or  department 
heads  and  such  members  of  the  legislative  body  as  are  most  con- 
versant with  the  needs  of  legislative,  judicial,  and  other  depart- 
ments of  government. 

In  the  county  government  in  most  states,  however,  there  is 
no  such  head,  and  the  budget  is  usually  prepared  by  a committee 
of  members  of  the  governing  board,  whether  a board  of  supervisors, 
or  commissioners,  or  what  not.  Such  a committee  cannot  have 
either  the  understanding  of  the  full  meaning  of  a budget,  or  the 
personal  interest  in  properly  performing  the  work  of  budget  prep- 
aration, that  an  executive  head  should  have  who  is  personally  re- 
sponsible in  very  large  degree  for  the  success  or  failure  of  the  entire 
county  administration.  The  man  who  is  officially  responsible 
ought  personally  to  lay  the  plans,  summoning  to  his  aid  such  advis- 
ers as  he  deems  best  suited  to  give  him  counsel.  This  principle 
has  been  recognized  in  the  amendments  recently  approved  by  the 
constitutional  convention  of  the  state  of  New  York,  which  provide 
that  the  governor  shall  finally  prepare  and  present  the  entire  budget 
to  the  legislature,  after  a maximum  of  sixty  days’  consideration  of 
estimates  and  appropriation  bills. 

Next  in  order  must  be  considered  the  accounting  features  of 
the  budget.  Having  established  our  catalogue  of  community  needs, 
which  it  is  supposed  to  serve,  they  will  be  classified  and  codified, 
under  proper  heads  and  titles,  as  a series  of  appropriations,  to  be 
made  from  county  funds,  when  provided,  and  to  be  expended  for 
the  specific  purposes  named  and  for  those  only. 

But  the  proposed  appropriations  for  the  current  financial  period 
are  by  no  means  all  there  is  to  a budget.  The  appropriations  must 
be  supported  by  several  auxiliary  statements,  each  in  itself  entailing 
more  or  less  accounting  analysis.  The  first  of  such  statements 
would  be  a comparison  of  appropriations  made  in  previous  years 
(at  least  the  two  next  preceding  the  year  to  be  financed)  for  similar 
purposes,  and  explanations  of  the  reasons  for  appropriations  made 
for  the  current  year  for  needs  not  hitherto  provided  for.  Such  a 
statement  shows  increases  or  decreases,  and  permits  comparison 
of  such  increase  or  decrease  with  the  growth  of  the  county  and  the 
wealth  and  population. 


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The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 


The  second  statement  which  must  be  submitted  is  a balance 
sheet, — that  is,  a tabulation  of  the  values  of  all  properties  tangible 
or  intangible,  which  the  county  owns,  and  a corresponding  tabula- 
tion of  all  the  debts  outstanding  against  the  county,  which  must  be 
paid  either  currently  or  in  the  future.  The  balance  sheet  should  be 
so  arranged  as  to  contrast  bonded  debt  with  the  value  of  the  im- 
provements for  which  it  was  incurred,  and  current  liabilities  with 
current  assets  in  hand  or  available  for  their  liquidation.  The  bal- 
ance sheet  would  then  show  the  surplus  in  hand  or  available,  appli- 
cable to  the  support  of  the  appropriations  asked  for  the  current 
year,  which  surplus  should  be  divided  into  two  elements,  (1)  capital 
surplus,  and  (2)  current  surplus.  If  there  results  a deficit,  it  should 
be  shown  in  the  same  characters. 

The  third  supporting  statement  should  be  a tabulation  of  all 
funds  of  previous  years,  of  which  there  is  either  a balance  or  a deficit. 
The  statement  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  show  what  part,  if  any, 
of  the  balance  of  each  fund  is  unincumbered  and  free  for  re-appro- 
priation towards  the  budget  of  the  current  year,  or  if  the  total 
amounts  to  a deficit,  what  deficit  should  be  added  to  each  of  the 
appropriations  asked  for  for  the  current  year,  and  what  the  total 
deficit  so  added  should  be.  The  total  surplus,  or  the  total  deficit 
of  the  fund  statement,  should  be  identical  with  the  current  surplus 
or  deficit  as  shown  in  the  balance  sheet. 

The  fourth  statement  should  show  the  estimated  amount  to  be 
received  from  indirect  sources,  such  as  municipal  earnings,  amounts 
paid  into  the  county  treasury  from  the  state  treasury,  from  the 
state  school  fund,  the  state  highway  fund,  etc.,  and  from  other 
indirect  sources. 

The  fifth  statement  should  recapitulate: 

a.  The  total  amount  of  the  budget  appropriations; 

b.  The  total  amount  of  receipts  from  unincumbered  fund  balances,  and  from 
estimates  from  indirect  sources  which  should  be  deducted  from  the  total  amount 
of  the  budget; 

c.  The  difference  which  would  be  the  amount  to  be  raised  by  a direct  tax. 

This  amount,  re-grouped  in  such  a way  as  to  show  the  amount 
to  be  paid  by  each  of  the  tax  districts  in  the  county  (because  in 
county  government  the  tax  rate  does  not  fall  evenly  upon  all  parts 
of  the  county,  as  explained  below)  and  the  tax  rate  for  each  tax 
district,  is  then  levied  by  the  county  governing  body.  With  ref- 


County  Budgets  and  their  Construction 


11 


erence  to  the  unevenness  of  tax  incidence,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
explain  as  follows:  highway  taxes  are  for  districts  outside  of  vil- 
lages, and  do  not  fall  within  the  village  corporation  limits,  because 
each  village  takes  care  of  its  own  streets  and  highways;  education 
taxes  are  for  proportionately  different  amounts  for  the  different 
superintendency  districts  and  the  different  school  districts,  and 
these  are  locally  levied,  and  not  spread  upon  the  whole  county 
evenly;  etc. 

An  auxiliary  statement,  accompanying  the  budget,  should 
show  the  amount  to  be  borrowed  for  capital  outlays,  so  that  tax- 
payers may  know  the  entire  amount  which  is  being  spent  in  the 
county  for  the  current  year.  In  New  York  State  counties  we  never 
are  informed  of  this  total.  Different  bond  issues  are  authorized 
by  the  board  of  supervisors  at  different  times  during  the  year  for 
public  improvements.  For  example,  in  Westchester  County  we 
are  issuing  bonds  this  year  for  purchase  of  properties  lying  within 
the  Bronx  Valley  parkway;  for  the  erection  of  various  new  county 
buildings,  such  as  court  house,  penitentiary,  and  almshouse;  for 
various  highway  purposes,  as  occasions  may  arise,  and  possibly  for 
one  or  two  bridges.  At  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  only  the  county 
treasurer  or  the  county  comptroller  is  able  to  state  just  what  amount 
of  long-term  indebtedness  has  been  incurred  by  the  county  during 
the  course  of  the  year.  The  only  item  about  which  the  citizens 
are  broadly  informed,  regarding  bonded  indebtedness,  is  the  amount 
of  maturing  bonds  and  interest  which  must  be  incorporated  in  the 
budget  itself  and  paid  during  the  year. 

Now  we  come  to  the  budget  ordinance,  or  the  enacting  statute, 
which,  in  itself,  deserves  most  serious  consideration,  but  is,  never- 
theless, perhaps  worse  slighted  than  any  of  the  other  elements  of 
budget  making,  as  bad  as  they  are.  This  ordinance  must  perform 
the  following  functions: 

1.  Authorize  the  appropriations  which  the  governing  body  decides  are  to 
be  expended. 

2.  Re-appropriate,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  such  appropriations,  the  unin- 
cumbered balances  of  the  funds  described  above. 

3.  Add  to  the  stated  appropriations  the  deficits  from  previous  years  as  part 
of  the  current  year’s  expenses. 

4.  Appropriate  the  estimated  receipts  from  indirect  sources,  to  be  used  for 
similar  purposes. 

5.  Levy  the  taxes  necessary  to  be  raised  to  meet  the  balance  of  expenditures. 


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The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 


6.  Make  all  these  things  mandatory,  not  simply  permissive. 

7.  Provide  for  the  control  of  the  authorized  expenditures,  by  prohibiting 
the  use  of  funds  for  any  purpose  except  that  specified. 

8.  Provide  for  an  accounting  system,  coordinated  in  detail  with  the  budget 
appropriations,  so  that  all  operations  of  the  year  may  be  traced  in  direct  compari- 
son with  the  original  financial  plan  adopted  at  the  beginning. 

9.  Provide  a work  plan,  as  detailed  as  possible,  for  carrying  out  the  service 
planned  in  the  appropriations,  and  provide  for  the  payment  for  such  service  only 
as  rendered,  after  inspection  and  certification  by  the  proper  county  authorities. 

10.  Provide  for  full  publicity,  as  to  the  operations  of  the  plan,  as  to  the  service 
rendered  by  public  employees,  and  as  to  the  progress  of  county  contracts  for  im- 
provements and  other  service.  Such  publicity  must  include  periodical  reports, 
at  least  monthly,  and  complete  records  open  at  all  times  to  all  persons. 

In  no  other  way  can  intelligent  judgment  be  formed  as  to  the 
fidelity,  competence,  and  efficiency  of  public  officers  and  employees, 
or  as  to  the  adequacy  of  the  general  financial  plan  of  the  admin- 
istration. 

Summary  of  Important  Features 

1.  All  needed  public  service  of  any  nature  whatsoever,  whether 
previously  included  in  public  service,  or  previously  left  to  private 
or  individual  management,  or  previously  entirely  neglected  and 
unprovided  for,  must  be  considered  and  financed;  and  all  silly, 
fanatical,  and  in  any  way  unsound  proposals,  and  all  merely  orna- 
mental and  fantastic  schemes,  and  all  merely  political  partisan 
patronage  plots  disapproved  and  rejected. 

2.  Complete  scientific  statements  of  financial  conditions,  both 
as  to  ownership  and  indebtedness  and  as  to  funding  operations, 
must  accompany  the  scheme  of  appropriations  proposed. 

3.  The  enacting  statute  must  provide  for  complete  control 
of  the  operation  of  the  proposed  plan. 

4.  The  most  efficacious  way  of  securing  responsibility  is  by 
complete  publicity,  which  is,  in  itself,  cheap,  simple,  and  entirely 
effective,  and  not  by  a complicated  system  of  interlocking  powers, 
with  checks  and  balances,  which  is  costly  and  complex,  and  has  never 
proven  to  be  efficient. 


